The Spending Affordability Advisory Committee (SAAC) Suppressed the Minority Report

On Wednesday, February 26th, 2020, the SAAC voted on a Majority Report. The report seeks to advance the prevailing narrative that residential development pays for itself through direct and implied language that undermine growth mitigation laws. A draft version had at least 14 sentences targeting growth mitigation.

A Minority Report was rejected by the Committee Chair and Vice-Chair, because it counters the prevailing narrative on development. Get the PDF version of the Minority Report here.

Some may question my approach of sharing such information outside the Committee. I was given no choice.

From the first day of the Committee’s meeting it was clear the format will be hostile to challenges against the prevailing narrative. During the first meeting, I recall one or two members visibly and verbally expressing displeasure when I challenged the notion that “level of service of public infrastructure has not changed”.

The meeting with the authors of the Urban Analytics report would not have taken place had I not persistently questioned the legitimacy of the methodology. And even then the environment was hostile and chilled.

The last meeting the Committee held to discuss the draft version of the Majority Report was also very hostile where some members were visibly exasperated that anyone would challenge the prevailing narrative. 

The Vice-Chair called it “inflammatory” that anyone would describe the tone and content of the Majority Report as “advancing the prevailing narrative”, even though it had at least 14 sentences that sought to undermine growth mitigation legislation.

The Minority Report provides a more complete picture of why the county is facing a budget deficit.